The Beating Heart
by Cissa The Bookworm
Summary: Dark AU for day one of Olivarry Week 2017.


The group watched in horrified slow motion as Barry falls to the ground, a bullet to the heart as a heavy sedative courses through his bloodstream, keeping him from using his powers. Oliver stalks over the man and plunges a hand into the man's chest, ripping out his still beating heart. He then goes over to Barry and Iris screams as Oliver plunges a hand into Barry's chest cavity and pulls out the still heart. Oliver ignores his friends and family surrounding him in the Queen mansion foyer in favor of pushing the beating heart down into Barry's chest and Moira faints as Barry wakes with a gasp.

"Again?" Barry asks breathlessly as Oliver helps him to stand up.

"Again." Oliver confirms. "It appears I'm one ahead in saving your life."

Barry looks at the fallen body, "His heart beats strangely."

"You know they always feel strange the first few days." Oliver gently chides, caressing Barry's cheek, "But then it will beat as your own."

"Burn or bury?" Barry asks, kicking at the foot of the dead man.

Oliver growls, "He shot you."

"And you took his heart in return." Barry kisses Oliver soundly on the mouth, "It is even. Now are we burning or burying?"

"Or we could rip it up and leave it for the wolves?"

Barry laughs, "Or we could take the third options and act like total barbarians! And that would require finding wolves, let's not rethink the wheel, darling."

Oliver shrugs, "I feel a need to could simply find wolves on the way to Mexico."

Barry languidly stretches and Iris shrinks back into her father's side while Felicity does the same to Diggle. Diggle and Joe flip the safety on their guns and take aim at the two men. Barry quirks an eyebrow at the men, "What harm do you think guns will do to us? The Rage will take over and one of us will kill one of you to take your beating heart." Barry returns to Oliver, "Mexico sounds lovely. We should make a stop at the witch market in Mexico City for a cleansing for ourselves before we head to Playa del Carmen."

"Would we make a stop to Santa Muerte?" Oliver asks eagerly.

"I wouldn't dream of not visiting Our Holy Death. She would be upset if we ignored her." Barry smiles, "I'll go pack our bags and be right back down. Prepare the body and grab the statue for cleansing his spirit. I would hate for us to have a malevolent spirit following us around just because he is a little pissy we killed him. He deserved a swift death for killing a harmless bystander."

"You're hardly harmless." Oliver smirks and Barry playfully smacks Oliver's bicep.

"Off with you!" Barry heads up the grand staircase while Oliver starts digging around in one of the foyer dressers, looking for something specific.

The group watch Oliver in horror as he pulls out a body bag, herbs, a coin, and a statue made in white bone. After putting the body in the bag, Oliver places the coin in the man's mouth, shoves the herbs all along his body and fits the statue in the dead body's hands. Done with the cleansing task, Oliver quickly zips up the bag and stands, turning to face the group. "What are you?" Thea asks, horrified.

Oliver grins, wide, wicked, and unrepentant. "Undead." Barry answers for Oliver, "He loved me so much that when I died the first time, when we were on our honeymoon in Mexico City, he found a witch to bring me back to life. He gave his own beating heart for me in exchange for my unbeating one. Now my heart beats for the both of us. If I die, Oliver has an hour to find a new heart for me. If Oliver dies, I too have an hour to find a replacement. Our hearts forever beat as one."

"You're undead too?" Iris looks close to throwing up as she chokes out the question. Felicity pushes up her glasses, nervous. Joe and Diggle wipe sweaty palms off on their pants.

"As long as we both have a beating heart, we will never age." Barry grins and shoulders the bag as Oliver throws the dead body over his own shoulder, "We're a better version of vampires. If you need us, we'll be in Mexico for a while." Barry waves sarcastically to his friends and family and follows his husband out of the Queen mansion, leaving behind shell-shocked people and a puddle of dead man's blood.


End file.
